Life as a doctoral student at the University of Oxford is often imagined in terms of carefree intellectual wandering, yet Addi Haan Diman recalled a different experience which saw her holding down seven different jobs at one point.

“It was insane – particularly as I was also attempting to write my dissertation,” reflected Dr Diman, now president of Oxford University Student Union, on a particularly busy academic term when the Lincoln College, Oxford student was teaching at four colleges and working as a research assistant.

“At the same time, I realised I was super-privileged to have friends and colleagues who gave me those jobs which helped me to finance my doctorate – not everyone gets those opportunities,” said Dr Diman, who took a DPhil in political science last summer.

“We really need more of a centralised system where proper jobs – with a living wage at the minimum – are advertised, and PhDs don’t need to rely on contacts to find their way,” she continued, advocating for a US-style model where tutoring jobs are centrally advertised so all doctoral students can see what is available.

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Although claiming she had little hope of being elected as Oxford’s student union president, Dr Diman said her willingness to confront the uncomfortable realities of doctoral life led to her success.

“I expected I’d be a postdoc right now – as I had an offer to go to Germany – but there was a feeling that postgraduates weren’t being listened to and I argued that, if enough of us showed up, I could do something about it. Thankfully, they did and, for the first time in a very long time, a doctoral student is leading the students’ union.”

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Although Oxford has long topped the 51�Թ� World University Rankings, it falls short in terms of financial and pastoral support for doctoral students in many ways, she continued.

“Oxford expects the very best but doctoral candidates can only be exceptional if you give us exceptional support,” explained Dr Diman, adding that Oxford “compares itself with US universities in many ways but their PhD students are fully funded. Oxford isn’t a globally leading institution on this front.”

Israeli-born Diman – who embarked on her DPhil aged 18, having gained a master’s at Hebrew University of Jerusalem – was not oblivious to the many benefits of doctoral study at Oxford, including the opportunity for college-based teaching and the bursaries that she has also received.

“I had tremendous research supervisors who supported and challenged me, but not everyone has this experience. And while it’s amazing to study at an incredibly wealthy institution which can support postgraduates, we are still working hard at the student union, with sabbatical officers, to use our platform to support change across the sector,” she said.

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One early piece of work led by Dr Diman was a report, published in November, which found only 4 per cent of Oxford postgraduate scholarships went to the most socio-economically disadvantaged group in the UK while 51 per cent of scholarships went to the most privileged groups.

Shining a spotlight on that disparity is important, explained Dr Diman, given the near invisibility of the issue compared with the national talking point that is undergraduate admissions at Oxbridge. That focus has led to admissions reform –  in 2023-24, compared with 48.1 per cent in 1995 – and investment that needs to replicated at graduate level, argued Dr Diman.

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“Progress can be made when investment happens, and attention helps with that. The climate is changing, I believe, and it needs to because Oxford is now a postgraduate-majority university, so the discussion about access needs to catch up. Our structures as a university haven’t really acknowledged that.”

In July’s 2024 general election four former presidents of Oxford’s student union (Kirsty McNeil, Martin McCluskey, Alan Strickland and Tom Rutland) were elected Labour MPs, joining equalities minister Anneliese Dodds, and it seems likely that Dr Diman’s political career will also continue in some form after Oxford. Yet the union’s first transgender student union president has already made a splash nationally after organising a letter, while president of the university’s LGBTQ+ society, opposing philosopher Kathleen Stock’s talk at the Oxford Union in May 2023.

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Reflecting on that episode – which saw then-prime minister Rishi Sunak condemn the cancellation efforts – Dr Diman said she has mixed feelings, accepting “we didn’t get optics as a student union” as Professor Stock, a gender-critical feminist who quit the University of Sussex after months of harassment, was photographed with numerous bodyguards as she made her way to the union.

“I’ve thought about it a lot and I don’t have a clearcut answer on this,” said Dr Diman. “I regret we were seen as anti-free speech and I could have made it clear that I believe strongly in free speech, but that this speaker was not being invited to debate but simply to deliver a speech.”

As the head of Oxford’s LGBTQ+ representative body, Dr Diman said she felt it was important to represent the views of this community and was insistent that the march, which attracted about 500 people, did not seek to shut down the event.

“I was at the front making sure there wasn’t an attempt to block the entrance, and we only arrived at the venue after people had entered,” recalled Dr Diman, who said she tried to “keep things positive with pop music and dancing” – with an annual Trans+ Pride march now taking place in Oxford annually following the Stock-inspired event.

“We should not forget about freedom of protest, even if people are uncomfortable about it,” she added. It was, in fact, the considerable soul-searching about the Stock protest which led Dr Diman to get serious about her political ambitions – including her run for the Oxford student union leadership, she added.

“I ended up, as academics do, reading an essay by Max Weber about how the roles of an academic, a student and a politician don’t really mix. As an academic or student, it’s easy to tweet but I saw how much more effective it was to work programmatically behind the scenes to help improve things for people,” she said, referencing her subsequent input into Oxford’s work on LGBTQ+ representation and access.

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“Being in that position that could actually help different communities convinced me to abandon my academic career and work in this area,” said Dr Diman on the unexpected inspiration for what might be a political journey to watch, and one for which postgraduates in Oxford and nationally may well be thankful.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com